An Occasional Thought or Photo

Inventory was out of control.  Unfortunately, that was my report to the Horizon Hobby's board one quarter.  Consumer preferences had shifted; a cold winter kept everyone inside; our forecasting tools were inadequate; and we (read that I) had exercised poor judgment in some critical buying decisions.  Ed Bachrach, retired chairman and CEO of Bachrach Clothing, Inc. chimed in, "Good judgment comes from experience.  Experience comes from bad judgment." Ed knew how to turn a bad moment into a learning moment.  "Experience comes from bad judgment" does not necessarily mean that bad judgment always leads to experience.  Similarly, experience does not necessarily lead to good judgment.  Each is an opportunity of the other, but only if I take advantage of it. Before I start bragging about all of the poor judgment I have exercised in almost six decades on earth, I had better start by filtering out all of poor judgment I ignored, that I didn't turn ...

During my first twelve years at Horizon Hobby, I had the opportunity to interact quarterly with  Ed Bachrach, retired CEO and Chairman of Bachrach Clothing, Inc., at our board meetings.  Ed brought  a variety of skills to the table, particularly in supply chain management, inventory control, and merchandising.  The highlight though was Ed's memorable snippets of dry, sharp wisdom that could put everything in context.  At one board meeting I described how we had addressed a significant business problem, but now a new and even more significant challenge had surfaced.  Ed quickly remarked, "If you're lucky in life, you'll have a new problem everyday.   If you're unlucky in life, you'll wake up to same damn, old problem every single day." I don't think Ed was talking literally about bedfellows.  He was addressing the reality of business.  Problems are never banished; they are just replaced with new problems.  Former Hori...